faderift | SATINALIA

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SATINALIA

WHO: Everybody!!
WHAT: SATINALIA!!
WHEN: Backdated to the first day of Firstfall
WHERE: Gallows courtyard
NOTES: Drunkenness and shenanigans. HALLOWEENMAS!!

This Satinalia is, perhaps, less grand than in years past. Blockades are still limiting access to luxury goods, after all, so the fine liquors and dainty foods that have been featured before are nowhere to be found. And Tertia, the temporary Morale Officer, doesn't have the connections or deft touch of organizers past, so things are rougher than they've been before - the musicians are less polished, the ale a little more watered-down, the decorations somewhat haphazard.

But you know what? It's still Satinalia. Nothing can really screw up Satinalia. Especially because there are some rather lovely touches, the best of which might well be the ice skating rink. A section of the Gallows Courtyard has been roped off and frozen over with magic, leaving a (largely) smooth sheet of ice covering it. Skates are available to borrow if you don't have a pair. Of course, some injuries are definitely going to result (if you skate off the edge, you're smacking into stone instead of a soft snowbank, which can be disastrous), but hey, it's fun.

Other perks are the bonfires, with mulled wine and cider being served out of cauldrons around them, where people might sit and reflect while watching the flame. There's also dancing, of course, with the musicians basically being any band that's been recommended by members of Riftwatch - so there are lots of half-competent cousins-of-friends playing here. What they lack in skill they make up for in enthusiasm; this is the first gig for a lot of them, and they're thrilled to be here.

One thing that's missing is the Satinalia fool being named ruler. Tertia wasn't familiar with this tradition and didn't arrange it - so there's a last-minute campaign being held, in which people can either nominate others or self-nominate to be named Riftwatch's greatest fool to be celebrated.

Enjoy yourself. Exchange presents. Get drunk. Have a blast. Don't lose any teeth.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"You don't want to lose teeth," Gela insists, still giggling. She pulls Ellie up, into a sitting position. "Let me show you how to stop. You can't go that fast without knowin', or I'll worry."

"I'll try," she reassures her, in the sort of tone that says she's a killjoy, but she's grinning. She lets Gela help her up and thankfully does not trip them both again.

"Okay, okay. Show me how."

"Look."

She leaves Ellie for a moment, and generates a little speed. Then, leaning most of her weight to one side, she brings the other leg behind her, dragging the blade flat against the ice to stop. She calls, "You make a T." And then she does the shape with both of her hands. "Try it!"

"You're fucking kidding me."

Ellie gets to her feet though, and tries it. Her rendition is a little more wobbly than Gela's but the second and third time she finds what makes the motion work, leans into it more confidently, and doesn't end up on her ass.

"Where'd you learn to do this?"

"At home," is her happy answer, "On the Minanter River. We tried to go whenever we could, my brothers and I, all our friends."

They used to spend a lot of time down there, skating back and forth, impressing each other with various tricks. "You've never skated before?"

"Just a couple times. Parties like this. The dam back home would never freeze over solid enough. Too deep."

But she's charmed by Gela's answer, wants to ask about it, isn't sure how.

"Who was the best at it?"

Gela looks briefly scandalised, and does a little twirly thing on the ice, turning in a circle to go backwards and continue their conversation.

"Me!"

Obviously!!

Ellie's jaw straight up drops, and she scoffs aloud to cover the fact that she almost tripped because that was so cool and distracting, Gela, thanks what the fuck-

"Well you didn't do that flip thing before I asked!"

Gela crosses her skates neatly and rights herself, all without breaking her stride.

"You didn't ask me to do a flip thing."

"I didn't know the flip thing was an option," she points out. Reasonably, she feels. But she's keeping pace with Gela even as she complains.

"What else can you do, then?"

"Hmm," Gela says, pretending to think, "I can do..."

She hasn't done any tricks in a long time, not since she left. Hadn't had the heart to don skates until this evening, because now she has somebody to share the experience with again. Let's see if she can remember how.

She does a little jump. A bunny hop, and her toepick catches into the ice, making her landing wobble. Gela has to windmill her arms out on either side of her body to keep her balance, but at least she's laughing. "That was bad, hold on!"

Let her go again! She does it smoother this time, without any wobbling at all.

"Oh shit-!"

Ellie stuffs her fist into her mouth as Gela nearly eats shit on the ice, but thankfully she doesn't, and then nails it perfectly, sending Ellie into a peal of delighted laughter, nerves up. Man, she's so glad she didn't go down.

"Okay, okay. That's impressive."

Gela beams, slowing up so that she can coast alongside Ellie once more. "Thank you!"

But to answer her question for real she says, "My friend Pavia is the best at skatin', actually. I miss watchin' her on the ice. If she were here she'd put us all to shame!"

She's gone a little bashful just thinking about her.

It's a mixed look, and Ellie catches the edge of her lower lip in her teeth, lifting her eyebrows as they make their way in their slow circles around the tent.

She can't help being curious. Gela's so easy to be curious about, and it's rarer to see her like this. Like she wants it out of her.

"What's she like?"

"Well," Gela says, thinking, "She's good at skatin', you know that already. She always sees the beauty in the smallest of things that nobody else would bother noticin', let alone pointin' out."

She's looking out over the ice as they skate, toward the bonfires. Has to admit that, "That always drove me crazy. She's relentlessly positive, and it's beautiful and annoyin'." But she looks a little soft when she says it, almost fond.

A sigh. "I could talk about her all day... she hated that about me, she did. She'd be so mad if she knew I were here and talkin' her up to you."

"She sounds awesome."

Ellie's voice is soft, sincere. She does sound awesome, and it sounds like Gela misses her, still cares for her, even if she's far away right now. She fights back the urge to ask again, her skates making soft, slick noises on the ice as they lean into a turn.

"Sounds a lot like someone I used to know."

Gela nods.

She still doesn't know if talking about Pavia actually helps ease the ache in her heart where she lives; sometimes it doesn't, and only makes her miss her even more. But sometimes she'll get a response like Ellie's, a soft, wistful thing that makes her smile and ask, "Yeah? Will you tell me more?"

Ellie pauses then, and maybe Gela will recognize the character of it; she's probing inside, trying to decide whether talking about this will hurt. It does, still. But it's not the breath-catching hurt that stops up her throat.

"Dina. Someone from my world. We were um, seeing each other, but." Ellie trails off, shakes her head. That part isn't important.

"She's like that. We were traveling once, and we came across this pack of wild horses. She fed them some fruit and they followed us for miles."

Oh, but Ellie is so bold with it that it actually makes Gela feel a little ashamed for having omitted certain details and she opens her mouth, but quickly closes it again. She'll steer it right later. Right now, she'd like to hear about Dina.

"She sounds so kind," is her assessment, "She must a wonderful person, Ellie."

It's easy to tell as much, from the way that Ellie speaks about her. Pavia, of course, is very far from her now, but she is not another world away. It makes Gela's heart ache a little just thinking about it.

"She is."

Ellie says it quietly. It's not without pain, and she misses her still. But at least she can talk about it. About her.

"And she's tough, especially if she's protecting somebody. When we were kids I was always the one flying off the handle, and she was the one talking me out of starting shit when it wasn't worth it. But the second it was worth it..."

Ellie blows out a breath, shaking her head with a low whistle.

"She's one of the nicest people there is. But when she decides to let someone have it, she doesn't pull punches. And, y'know..."

She sucks in a breath, pushes it out with a sigh. "A big ol' flirt."

She likes the picture Ellie paints of her, this woman, loyal to no end, protective of her people. Flirty, fun to be around. She sounds like somebody that Gela would like knowing, and she smiles to herself, a small, sad thing. She wishes there were some way to have her here- or maybe she's jumbling this up with her own memories, and feelings.

Maker, she wouldn't know what to say to Pavia if she were here, but she still wants her to be. Strange, isn't it.

"Sounds like that worked well on you," she teases, gentle, mindful of the ache. Because Ellie was so, unflinchingly honest with her she adds, "Pavia, she- we were seein' each other too. We were together for almost two years."

"Yeah, it did."

Ellie doesn't mind saying so. It still aches. She still misses her. She can't say that she would be okay if she came face to face with her. Can't say she wouldn't still be stupidly in love, and still wouldn't deserve to be taken back.

"And yeah, it was about two years for us too." Ellie sobers as they skate, glances sideways at her.

"Still carrying that torch?" she asks softly, with the kind of quiet that says she knows what that feels like.

Gela chuckles because she has to, otherwise there's no way around it. There was no closure. There won't be any, so usually she tries not to think about it too hard, otherwise she dwells, imagines the details of her face, and what she might have looked like the day she realised that Gela wasn't going to come back to her.

She nods, looking askance at Ellie. "I think I always might." She owes her that much, really.

This isn't any fun at all, is it. To hear all her woes! She adds, almost innocently, "That's why it's good that everybody here is so handsome. So many distractions about."

"Yeah," Ellie says with a sigh, and doesn't pry, because yeah, that sucks. That's always going to suck. She knows exactly how much that sucks.

But Ellie chokes back a laugh, and if Gela looks at her at the right moment she might just catch the way Ellie's eyes dart over towards Clarisse, before she firmly fixes them on the rink.

"I know, right."

Ah ha ha they are still on the same page after all! Gela grins, the melancholy sloughing off, and she clasps her hands neatly behind her back as she skates, looking ahead of her. Yes, this is much more fun to talk about! She loves gossip.

"You've been here longer than I have," is Ellie's warning for what's to come: "Had any distractions of your own?"

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